Do You Have to Choose Between Net Zero and Combustible Materials?

How do you make difficult decisions when there are apparently conflicting priorities? Surely the answer is to have an open, well-informed and evidence-based debate.

You could apply this reasoning to climate change policies. Should we replace fossil fuels with nuclear, solar, wind or hydrogen? What are the pros and cons of each? What is the total carbon cost of each? If there was a simple clear-cut answer, we’d know what it is.

So it is with construction.

The future is a net zero carbon built environment – that much seems clear. If that truly means what it says it throws up all sorts of implications. The most fundamental of these is whether it’s best to demolish and rebuild or to retrofit what’s already there.

If we rebuild we have to account for the carbon emitted when construction materials are extracted, processed and transported. Otherwise, we risk trying to make things better in the future by creating an even bigger greenhouse gas problem in the present.

Working With What We Have

There are ambitions to produce zero carbon steel and concrete in the future. But, in the here and now these materials have high levels of embodied carbon.

You can offset the embodied carbon by specifying a high structural timber content. This is how you get to zero carbon for design and build as well as the operational phase.

Understandably, in the UK at the moment there’s a lot of caution about structural timber and using construction materials deemed to be combustible. This brings us back to priorities and informed debate.

Avoiding structural timber may seem like a zero risk policy. But it’s also a choice that can’t get you to net zero carbon.

What do we mean by combustible? If you put a piece of wood on a fire it burns. Structural timber used in a building on the other hand chars and maintains its structural integrity for a longer period.

Innovaré i-FAST panels are a new generation of SIP. They can play an effective role in carbon reduction as well as the insulation and boards being A1 rated (non-combustible) for fire safety according to the Euroclass fire safety rating system, and surface spread of flame rating class 0 for fire propagation. These are the highest ratings possible when it comes to combustibility and flame propagation.

i-FAST is a practical and evidence-based way to achieve net zero carbon construction for developers and contractors who are open to examining the facts.

Contact enquiries@innovaresystems.co.uk for more information or take a look at our resource centre.